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UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jan Blachowicz recently claimed in an interview on Ariel Helwani's MMA show that he's staying away from the Octagon till March.
UFC President Dana White recently said that Jan Blachowicz will be defending his newly acquired Light Heavyweight title against Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya, who will move up a weight class on his quest to become a two-division champion.
Jan Blachowicz: Israel Adesanya will have to wait
Jan Blachowicz earlier accepted the challenge of the superfight against Israel Adesanya with a tweet.
However, he has made it clear now that he is not available for a fight till March. If Israel Adesanya can wait till then, he will most certainly fight him, but not before that.
"I can fight in March with anybody. It's no problem for me. But I cannot fight any earlier than March. If Israel wants to wait, no problem."
Jan Blachowicz and his wife are expecting their first child in December, for which he obviously wants to stay back at home.
Jan Blachowicz's home country Poland is also going through a spike in coronavirus cases right now, which is yet another reason he does not want to commit to a fight in the next four months.
"In Poland right now, the situation is not so good, and we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, the day after tomorrow. Right now we train normally, but nobody knows what our government is preparing for. We'll see what's going to happen later."
Ironically enough, the initial opponent that Dana White had in mind for Israel Adesanya also gave a similar timeline for his next fight.
White said that he was trying to convince Adesanya to take the Robert Whittaker rematch next after beating Paulo Costa. But Whittaker (allegedly) said he did not want to fight the middleweight champ, so White gave the green signal for the superfight to happen.
However, Whittaker has made it abundantly clear that the Israel Adesanya fight is the one he wants the most, but only after he returns to the Octagon in March. 'The Reaper' is also expecting a son with his wife in January, and he is taking time off to be there with his family.
Will Israel Adesanya wait till March?
ESPN reported that when asked if he wants to wait till March to have the fight, Israel Adesanya said that "it's all hearsay", implying Jan Blachowicz might change his mind.
"Nothing set or done yet. It's all hearsay. I'm a very persuasive guy."
Whether the fight happens now or next year in March, a move up to Light Heavyweight is more or less confirmed for Israel Adesanya. It has also stirred up the conversation regarding a superfight between him and his long-time nemesis Jon Jones.
The two have never met in the Octagon, but have battled with words outside of it for long now. Adesanya is confident about that fight definitely happening sometime in the future, and when it does, it will be the biggest fight in the history of UFC.
"There's no way that fight's not going to happen."
